In a medical screening procedure, such as radiologic screening mammography, a large number of medical images need to be reviewed. In order to allow a radiologist to fully concentrate on the review of the medical images an efficient and user friendly interface is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,929 shows a user interface for a computer aided diagnosis system. A touch sensitive display screen is provided to display status information and to receive instruction from an operator. The display screen displays miniature images of the films having colour-coded borders so that the operator monitors the processing of the radiologic films. The interface includes view selection buttons to allow the operator to select certain x-ray images. This interface requires that the user select the images and the view of the images during the ongoing screening procedure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,345 shows a method and system for displaying of medical images and computer output from various computer aided diagnosis (CAD) schemes on the images. Images are loaded into the display system and displayed in a main viewing area. Individual abnormality from CAD schemes can be viewed by clicking buttons with minified (postage stamp size) images with CAD annotation rendered into them. The images and results are then shown on a high-speed monitor. Again this prior art system is deficient or has disadvantages as the complexity of the user interface requires a substantial amount of the radiologist's attention and concentration during the screening.